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geographical reviews When a region becomes the central character in a book, as the insular North Atlantic has in this volume, the author, wittingly or not, assumes the role of geographerliterally a writer of the earth Just as a geographer would be criticized for getting his or her history wrong, Oslund’s geographical errors must be addressed From the use of outdated linguistics texts in establishing transpacific migration routes, to the repetition of the popular but erroneous claim that Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands, is “the smallest capital city in the world” (p ), Iceland Imagined contains enough geographical inaccuracies to warrant a cautious recommendation for geographers with interests in the North Atlantic One should read this book for its history of ideas and perceptions and its grasp of the tensions that exist and have existed at cultural frontiers and should bear in mind that, despite its regional focus and fair-to-good maps, it is not a geography text That being said, geographers should approach this bookperhaps with pencils in hand for making marginal notations and correctionsas one approaches a collegial conversation: confident that each party, in this case the author and the reader, will have something valuable to contribute to the experience.Russell Fielding, University of Denver BOMBAST: Spinning Atoms in the Desert By Michon Mackedon, with Peter Goin xv and pp.; maps, ills., bibliog., index Reno, Nev.: Black Rock Institute Press, . (cloth), ; . (paper), As the old saying goes, if you are going to make a distasteful comment, at least you should “smile when you say that.” That, in a nutshell, is the gist of Bombast Michon Mackedon, whose long familiarity and affection for Nevada has evolved into a compelling case that not only words matter, how you say them matters even more This is especially true when the words are used to sell the public on the need for a massively expensive program whose fundamental purpose is to kill as many people as possible Bombast is the story of language, landscape, colonialism, and place, all topics that fall well within the scope of geographers and their discipline Mostly it is the story of how we, the public, have been manipulated by language into believing that nuclear weapons are not as fearsome and deadly as all our human senses intuit that they are The focus of Bombast is the Nevada Test Site (), a small-state chunk of land that most people have never seen and few consider worth visiting After all, as Mackedon points out, places this remote, unfamiliar, and threatening almost beg to be pulverized, andwithout a doubtwhat has taken place there is at once highly secret, awesomely powerful, and also safe as long as its residue does not escape the state boundaries Bombast recalled for me the mid-s, when two hours before sunrise I would be rousted out of bed to watch our small black-and-white television set It was common in those days to broadcast live coverage of nuclear bomb testing at Yucca Flats, Nevada, miles north of Las Vegas I still remember the bright flash and the mushroom cloud, although it seemed at the time more a curiosity than a hazard the geographical review That type of demonstration soon discontinued In Bombast, as Mackedon explains, in the s we were still rather proud that we had developed such a device We were still in that period when we thought we could promote the emerging dominance of the United States by letting people know what a miracle of science, engineering, and creativity the nuclear bomb was After several televised tests, however, someone decided that bragging too much about such prowess was creating more public anxiety than awe The use of language, as Bombast emphasizes, has been a common thread in the American sense of place Alluring language attracted people to the Ohio River Valley, then the Upper Midwest, then Oregon and California In contrast, language about the western deserts filled hearts with dread Nevada in particular was seen as a deadly barrier that travelers to California would have to overcome before they could make the last push over the Sierra Nevada and down into the bountiful Central Valley of California It was chosen for weapons testing because of the words that people from outside the state used to describe it If it’s a desert, the story went, then it must be worthless Nevada was part of the country where one would find only cactus, spiders, snakes, no water, and a blistering sun As a wasteland it was immune from harm and just the right place for nuclear scientists to run their experiments as to just what nuclear bombs could In much the same way as we still choose sites for our obnoxious industrial, municipal, and military activities today, the was chosen through a process of elimination After all, who would condone detonating hundreds of nuclear bombs in the Great Plains, the Midwest, the Deep South, New England, or the MidAtlantic states? Nevada was chosen because it had offended no major constituency The problem was, as Mackedon explains, even Nevada was not isolated enough Soon fallout was drifting downwind, falling on isolated patches of territory such as Saint George, Utah, and the Indian lands of the Colorado Plateau It was to eventually trigger cancers that would take many lives, despite official pronouncements of the day that the local residents and their livestock were not in harm’s way Bombast has been published by a fledgling house organized by Paul Starrs and Peter Goin Starrs, a former editor of the Geographical Review and Paul Goin, a renowned photographer, both have deep appreciation for Nevada, sentiments that, by custom, few across the border share For, as Mackedon makes clear, it was the description of Nevada as a valueless part of the United States that made it ideal for activities no one wanted near his or her own home In a “desert-as-dump” approach to siting, Nevada was chosen for nuclear testingas it would later be for nuclear waste disposalprecisely because few outside the state saw in it much other value It was a claim that finally exhausted itself after the government selected Yucca Mountain, within the , to be the site for high-level nuclear waste disposal Yet, following more than a decade of work and billions of dollars, the Yucca Mountain site was finally abandoned when people in Nevadaand elsewhere rejected the usual rhetoric of assurances geographical reviews Throughout this compelling and even disturbing book, Mackedon demonstrates again and again that words matter when describing places and landscapes “Words have the power to shape culture, write the past to suit the present, create truth, and disguise falsehood” (p xiii) “Words used to characterize a site as suitable or scientifically sound for nuclear testing or nuclear experimentation fly from a ‘Pandora’s box’ stuffed with preconceptions about place, landscapes, and populations” (p ) For many years, after hundreds of tests that the public was assured were no threat to them, we now know they were Mackedon also demonstrates the links between nuclear weapons and colonialism Language has been used by the “powerful to seduce the powerless” in service of what is characterized as the greater good (p xv) This approach was used as a form of “internal colonialism” not only in Nevada but in other places as well Whereas large countries like the United States and Russia have always had ample “empty” space for testing, other countries have had to go abroad Great Britain went to Australiaanother empty desert; France tested in Algeria Even the United States decided that it should move away from North America when it chose the Marshall Islands for further testing In all cases governments used language to convince local residentsand there were always people therethat the testing would them no harm As with “downwinders” in the United States, the relocation that was enforced on those who used to live on Bikini Atoll continues, as they too fell prey to the arguments of experts that testing could be done without risk “Words have the power to shape culture, write the past to suit the present, create truth, and disguise falsehood” (p xiii) The idea of deserts as unoccupied, empty tracks of land is still not a thing of the past, as we are now witnessing with the upsurge of interest in developing renewable energy Even solar advocates are learning this fact, the hard way For decades people envisioning miles and miles of solar panels have approached the southwestern deserts What could be a better use of deserts than that? But now that the dropping costs of solar equipment is stimulating large projects in Arizona, Nevada, and California, developers are encountering opposition from people who have been pointing out that the deserts are valuable just as they arecomplete with their vistas, endangered species, and archeological valuables Bombast is a welcome companion to the growing literature dedicated to site selection, a sense of place, the power of language in land use, deserts as wastelands, landscape permanence and transformation, and the risks of unintended consequences It belongs on the shelf with Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America, by Stephen Hilgartner, Richard Bell, and Rory O’Connor (), and Language and the Nuclear Arms Debate: Nukespeak Today, by Paul Chilton () It recalls of the compelling stories of downwinders in Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams (), Atomic Farm Girl, by Teri Hein (), Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy, by Philip Fradkin (), and the theatrical film The Downwinders () The inclusion of a section of attractive and evocative color plates of atomic place-names, collected by Peter Goin, is a the geographical review welcome companion to the images on display in American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War, by Carole Gallagher () and Goin’s own Nuclear Landscapes () Bombast fills a gap by pulling all of these themes together into one book of crisp narratives and clear insights Mackedon reminds us that deserts are not just good as dumping grounds and that environments are fragile, words matter, and people everywhere have rights These overlapping lessons are central themes that make this book of special value to all those who are drawn to the art of geographical inquiry.Martin J Pasqualetti, Arizona State University LANDSCAPE OF TRANSFORMATIONS: Architecture and Birmingham, Alabama By Michael W Fazio xvi and pp.; maps, ills., bibliog., index Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, . (cloth), At first glance Michael Fazio’s Landscape of Transformations: Architecture and Birmingham reads like an architectural catalog of the southeastern city’s built urban landscape that offers little critical insight into the place once lauded as the “Magic City.” Upon reflection, however, the reader will be impressed by Fazio’s elegant storytelling, which is essentially what this book isthe story of Birmingham through an architectural and somewhat personal narrative In his preface the author tells the reader that Birmingham is “the place where I grew up and that I once comprehended as a child, adolescent, and young adult” (p xiii) This personal connection ultimately strengthens the book, although the reader who is not familiar with Birmingham may feel overwhelmed by the local references Fazio claims that his book is not a comprehensive survey of the city’s architecture, but I doubt that a more complete accounting has yet been written For geographers and scholars of the city, Fazio reminds us that before cities can be studied, surveyed, and critiqued they must be imagined and built Once hailed as the “Pittsburgh of the South,” Birmingham’s industrial legacy is a mixed blessing, Fazio argues, as he begins his story in the prologue “The Birmingham Problem.” At the beginning of the twentieth century Birmingham’s explosive growth stirred tremendous national interest, but when journalists visited the city they were overwhelmed by slums near the iron furnaces, the accumulation of slag in the streets, and the lack of public parks and services; thus began the city’s long legacy of defensive and reactionary planning and public relations that continued through the Civil Rights era and beyond Fazio’s story is chronological, with one exception: his discussion of the geology of the region, which paves the way for his treatment of the industrial boom He traces the city from its preindustrial to postindustrial, suburban landscape, including what was actually built, but he also addresses the plans that were proposed for the city but never realized Of particular note is the chapter entitled “The Setting for Civil Rights.” The history and politics of Birmingham during this era are well known, but Fazio’s approach is unique He does not recount the emblematic events of the era; rather, he uses the streets, buildings, and landscapes of the city to structure his recounting ... of the South,” Birmingham’s industrial legacy is a mixed blessing, Fazio argues, as he begins his story in the prologue ? ?The Birmingham Problem.” At the beginning of the twentieth century Birmingham’s... Tragedy, by Philip Fradkin (), and the theatrical film The Downwinders () The inclusion of a section of attractive and evocative color plates of atomic place-names, collected by Peter Goin, ... chose the Marshall Islands for further testing In all cases governments used language to convince local residentsand there were always people therethat the testing would them no harm As with
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